It’s About Time: Set that Audacious Goal! (Part II)
“The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
-- Michelangelo Buonarroti
I find it ironic that I have committed to finish this blog post on time management, and my first instinct is to apologize for the delayed nature of this posting! A humble reminder that sometimes, even with strong desire and determination of will, life simply gets in the way. When things first shut down at the beginning of this pandemic, I had this feeling of time being suspended. It felt like a gift in some ways. Yes, we were scared about some things -- not understanding this virus, the implications of not being able to work in the short term, wondering if our kids would return to school. But some of us found ourselves breathing deeply, putting off the items on our lengthy to-do lists and spending more time with our families. Gardens were started, board games came out, Netflix marathons began. Now as the new school year begins I have the opposite sensation -- one of time speeding up, and feelings of guilt and regret about all the things I could have done, or should have done with my time. It almost feels like I was able to run ahead of Time for a brief stint and escape its oppression, but that time has now come to an end. Time has caught up and is overtaking me. Many of the securities and constants that have been in my life for years have also been left behind in this metaphorical race.
So is there a point to continuing this post on time management? I believe there is, if for no other reason than to call out the pernicious psychological games that Time can play on us. Our perception and relationship with time is just one way we struggle with our need to feel in control of our lives. Our sphere of control or influence can be split into two categories: Reactive and proactive. Balancing and mitigating the tensions between reactive work and proactive work is another blog post in and of itself, so here I will focus on how the strategies found in The Pomodoro Technique by Francescesco Cirillo, Fight Your Fear and Win by Don Greene, and Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg can help us in the proactive category. More specifically, we will look at goal setting, and strategies for adhering to those goals.
As a university professor, I have long emphasized to my students the importance of having a plan. Of course plans can change, and this does not have to be rigid, but a lack of a plan means undirected and unclear goals. I usually encourage them to break their plan down into long term, mid term, and short term goals as a way to make the plan more manageable and tangible. To really put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, I decided to test this theory on myself using the strategies I had read about as a way to refine and deepen the planning process. I chose a goal that I had both been putting off, and found quite terrifying: to start an online store for my artwork.
LONG TERM GOAL SETTING
For this category I found the strategies laid out in Charles Duhigg’s Smarter Faster Better the most helpful. In his chapter on goal setting, he examines a productivity tactic developed by GE in the 1970s with the acronym “SMART” goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timeline. For decades every employee at GE was required to apply the criteria to their work goals for a set time frame, and the plan had to be subsequently approved by their manager. Because both parties had to agree that the plan was reasonable and achievable within the time frame, the SMART criteria became a sort of contract between the employee and manager. For the majority of cases company wide this strategy worked beautifully. In the few exceptions, internal consultants found that in situations where SMART goals were being applied to mundane and insignificant tasks, productivity and efficiency was in fact suffering. Enter the role of the ‘stretch goal.’ Starting with an ambitious goal and then applying the SMART criteria prevented employees from only focusing on tasks that simply provided a satisfying sense of closure when completed. In my case, the stretch goal I gave myself was “open an online store for my artwork.” To see an example of the SMART flowchart and questions, and how I used them for my stretch goal, check out the photos at the end of the article.
MID TERM GOALS
After completing my SMART flowchart, I still felt like I needed more direction to really ‘see’ the whole project. I liked that I had a time frame, but I wanted more structure within that time frame. Basically, I didn’t trust myself with just the one deadline; more deadlines would help keep me on track and accountable to achieving my stretch goal. I was reminded of a more detailed approach outlined in Don Greene’s Fight Your Fear and Win. In his chapter on “How to Set Goals and Go After Them,” he lays out a goal mapping technique that is fantastic for working backwards on a timeline for an audacious goal. Four categories are laid out horizontally -- from left to right they are: Time frame, the Logistics, the Execution, and the Mission. The mission (or stretch goal) is established in the top right corner. Across on the left the projected time frame for completion is listed. From the mission goal(s) one asks “what needs to happen in order for this to be achieved?” The execution column contains the strategic goals that pave the way to the destination, or mission column. Greene defines the logistics column as the structural goals, or ‘nuts and bolts’ activities of the chart -- those that assist in breaking down the time frame into shorter assignments. These shorter assignments get their own time frame within the larger time frame. After completing this exercise I felt I needed more experience in distinguishing the nuances between strategic and structural goals, but if you want to see my attempt, I am including a picture of my goal mapping chart at the end.
SHORT TERM
And now for the day-to-day. I love the Pomodoro Technique for managing the daily execution of the long term plan. I don’t want to get too far into the weeds explaining it, as I feel its simplicity and its adaptability are two of its best features. A Pomodoro (named after the Italian for ‘tomato’ and inspired by the iconic kitchen timers) is a continuous 25 minutes block of work or other pre-planned activity, followed by a 5 minute break. Pomodoros can be stacked, and 3 or 4 in a row usually necessitates a longer break of 15 - 20 minutes before resuming another stretch of mentally taxing work. You may be thinking that this hardly seems like a method, but the beauty and purpose comes in observing your mind as you focus your energy and resolve on staying with the task at hand. The planning chart for the day includes a space for the number of pomodoros required for each task, and symbols for recording both external and internal interruptions. Internal, or mental interruptions get their own space for being recorded, and can be put into an ‘Activity Inventory’, or a space for ‘Unplanned and Urgent’ tasks. I find this process very soothing, as the interruption is acknowledged and set aside, but doesn’t fully derail the task at hand. Until trying this approach I was very unaware of how often I allowed myself to start doing something else, causing the desired task to take far longer than it otherwise would have. Often I will add two of my own additional categories to the page: A place for what I call a ‘brain dump,’ for when I have a full-on brainstorm level idea, and a negative thought log so that I can monitor my self-talk. Author Francesco Cirillo elaborates on ways to keep records of the information contained in the charts in order to collect data and draw conclusions over time. Ideally, using this system will illuminate the user with better estimates for how long a specific activity will realistically take to complete.
Some Pomodoros will go well, and some won’t. The goal mapping of an audacious goal may need to be refined and revisited many times. I have at times felt discouraged, and at times felt hopeful. I think it is important to remember that all this is normal and predictable -- especially if you are at home trying to make things happen while your children are simultaneously remote learning. If you are acting as your own boss or manager, be kind to yourself. After all, employee retention is important in this scenario. . .
And tomorrow is a new day.
Charles Duhigg’s SMART flowchart from Smarter Faster Better
Goal Mapping from Don Greene’s Fight Your Fear and Win
My version of the Pomodoro Technique, developed by Francesco Cirillo